Thursday, October 28, 2010

Okay, so the novel has finally been sent off to the agent. Here's hoping he likes it enough to take me on as a client!!

If not, that okay 'cos I'm at least off to a good start. This is the first agent I've contacted and he asked to read the whole MS, so I've gotta be doing something right. And I'm prepared for the hard yards, regardless.

So now it's onto the next novel, and I'm going to use NaNoWriMo to get me out of the starting blocks. Actually, I think I might aim to do this every year. It's a good way to motivate myself, as I find beginning a novel a monumental task, one that I view with both terror and excitement.

I've been busy nutting out the plot and characters, the storyline and structure, and reckon I'm about good to go.

And cos I'm so organised, I had time to think about getting involved with Movember - always thought I'd look a crack up with a mustache! But maybe next year... We had a site wide video conference at work the other day, and one of the presenters had a mustache. All I could think of while he was giving his presentation was, 'gee, he looks like a porn star.'

Oh, and The Art of Tim Burton finally arrived, and what a book this is! Tim Burton is a genius, a talent and a half; his art style is so distinct. Sometimes it's so simple but it's just brilliant. What a source of inspiration this book is.

Monday, October 18, 2010

I love bacon. It's delicious. Roast pork too, with all that crackling. Then there's ham, a whole leg of ham. What a wonderful animal this is. What did Homer once say? 'Porkchops and bacon, my two favourite animals.'

Homer: I’ll have the smiley face breakfast special. Uhh, but could you add a bacon nose? Plus bacon hair, bacon mustache, five o’clock shadow made of bacon bits and a bacon body.Waitress: How about I just shove a pig down your throat?(Homer looks excited)Waitress: I was kidding.Homer: Fine, but the bacon man lives in a bacon house!

Problem is, I love animals and while I have a huge vege garden, there's no way I could have pigs. No way could I go out to Mr Piggy and slice off a bit of his hide for my Sunday roast each week. It just wouldn't feel right.

It would be so much better if pork grew on trees. Then I could just plant it with all of my other veges, the corn and carrots, spinach and spuds, capsicums and cucumbers etc. Just imagine, a bacon tree. How wonderful would that be?? I wouldn't have to worry about garden gnomes nibbling my toes, only Homer living there.

Okay, that's my Dr Suess moment over for the week. Back to the writing.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Two new covers to present today, one for my story Joey Blue and the Gutterbreed appearing in ASIM #48 (edited by the wild and wacky Jules), and the second for my flash fiction piece Breaking Point, appearing in Daily Bites of Flesh.

Both covers are truly awesome.

My Joey Blue story is a 'Parkton' story, that is, Joey's a character that appears in my novel, and Parkton is the town in which he finds himself. It ain't a nice place, either... An old bluesman who fell into his songs one day and never found his way out again, that's Joe.

And some of the contributors appearing in Macabre have been posting snippets of their stories for your reading pleasure, plus a bit of background on how their stories came about. Check out the blogs of Shane Jiraiya Cummings and David Conyers for a start, and stay tuned for more.

Meanwhile, my long lost sideshow freak of a muse has unfurled from the depths of my mind and started feeding me stories again... The madness is back, fresh and deformed, and it's such a wild and wonderful feeling!

Also just had the wonderful Sarah Langan, my HWA mentor, provide some brilliant feedback on my novel. I'm making a few changes in accordance with her suggestions, and then the whole MS will be off to the London agent fellow. Keep your fingers crossed!!

And then it's NaNoWriMo next month, and that pesky Jules character has roped myself and AJ (and no doubt a number of other poor souls) into taking part (I say pesky but I don't mean it, honest). Should be fun; only 1666 words per day. Easy.

Wednesday, October 06, 2010

These creatures were apparently the biggest (100-300ft) and most advanced marine reptiles to have ever existed on Earth, going extinct around 540 million years ago - although 'latest results' date these beasties at 484 million years. Their teeth were 3 foot long (see below), which would make T-rex look like a vegetarian.

But, er, the remains look like rocks. I'm a geologist so I know what a rock looks like. But that's okay cos it's all about Zoria Repeat apparently, which I don't know about. Once you understand this, you can see things in the rocks. Wouldn't that make my day job fun?

Here's what this Mike fellow has to say:

What nobody is doing today, in the paleontological scientific communities is addressing the real scientific questions related to explaining the origins of the specialized configurations of stones (Seazoria remains). Basically the common school of thought is 'rocks are rocks because rocks have always been rocks". This is the 21st century and it is now time for science to evolve a grater understanding and explanation of why these particular stones are arranged in the exact configuration's of large scale extremely advanced prehistoric sea dragons. Yes it is much easier to to just label the Hallettestoneion Seazorias are rocks but where are all the scientists that want to get to the bottom of the Seazoria prehistoric biological mysteries. The global scientific community should be explaining accurately the triggering event that caused the creation of the specialized configurations.

There was another fellow, and this is going back some years, who was convinced he had discovered a microscopic race of humans. Apparently he found evidence of them while looking at some microscope slides of spores and pollen. Little tiny humans, all about 50-100 microns in size (there are 1000 microns in a millimeter).